Wednesday 6 April 2011

Another go at the Spotted Crake.

I thought I'd have another go at getting some decent shots of the Spotted Crake at Brandon Marsh so early this morning (well early for me) I shot over there getting into the EM hide smack on 8.00AM.

There were only a hand full of birders there and they told me it had shown briefly at just after 7.00AM but not since.At just before 9.00AM it appeared right at the far end of the channel and it stayed in the channel for the next 90 minutes only going back into the reeds a few times.

Expert birders told me it's staying in the open longer now because the scrub in the channel had grown a bit and it now felt safer with more cover.Well this is all right for the Crake but not for us photographers and we all struggled to get a clean shot of it (well I certainly did but have now got some great scrub shots).

After watching it for well over an hour I felt very hot and thinking I might have contacted Crake fever ( as serious as Ebolo and Beri Beri) I left the hide.Here a few shots but only marginally better than my last efforts.











I then had a good walk round in the sunshine chasing Warblers for a few shots.It was nice to see loads of Chiffchaffs,Willow Warblers and Blackcaps but I did miss out badly when an Osprey apparently flew over my head and I missed it completely ( so I missed out on a great Warks year tick).

Here are a few Warbler shots.









3 comments:

Kevin Groocock said...

Nice one, Max - I must have just missed you! It became elusive again during my time at east marsh.

Max Silverman said...

Cheers Kevin.The scrub is higher now and it's a pain to get a decent shot.

Pete Walkden said...

They're decent shots Max. Made me smile regarding the osprey though. :-)